Acceleration switches can be used whenever a particular level of acceleration or deceleration must be sensed. For example, in automobiles, an acceleration switch can be used to sense a crash and trigger the deployment of an airbag, or to sense or a severe braking situation and trigger a seat belt tensioning device.
The present invention represents an advance in the art of acceleration switches by providing an acceleration switch that can be formed by micromachining. This minimizes a need for conventional precision machining and piece-part assembly.
The acceleration switch of the present invention can be formed using batch fabrication techniques, with individual devices having acceleration set points which can be selected over a wide range from 1 G to one thousand G or more, where G is the acceleration due to gravity.
These and other advantages of the present invention will become evident to those skilled in the art.